


Twists and Turns

by Fallen_Ark_Angel



Series: Remember Me [39]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 05:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14846681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallen_Ark_Angel/pseuds/Fallen_Ark_Angel
Summary: In which a child's puzzle toy is a metaphor for life and some people never know how to get out of their own way.





	1. Chapter 1

The tiny space was filled with young children, filtering between the aisles, examining this and that. The shop's owner only rested an elbow against the counter top from where he watched them, his keen, well-trained eyes jumping around at expert speed as he observed them all. Every single one. To be certain there was no theft going on.

And, while at the moment there was not, there were a pair of thieves in the toy and candy shop.

"Ravan," the younger of the two complained as his brother only continued to fill a big baggie full of candy. "Can't I get a bag? And get my own candy?"

"Do you have your own jewels?"

"No."

"Then what are you asking me for? Go get your own jewels and you can do whatever the heck you want with them."

"Ravan-"

"Shuddup." And the older of the two shoved his brother, rather hard with an accompanying glare. From his mouth, he only spewed, "Go away."

So he did, stomping a bit. By a bit, literally only a few steps before, with his eyes filled with tears, he ran smack into someone else.

"Watch it, you stupid- Kai?" The latter part of this was said with even more of a growl than the first half. As the little boy blinked up into the blue eyes of Haven Dreyar, however, he only grinned. If she was there that meant-

"Marin," he cheered as he spotted her, across the shop, standing beside her father the guild master. Laxus was busy examining the price of a baby doll that Marin was excitedly hoping to take home and become just the best mother anyone could ever to, but both looked over at the sound of the boy's scream.

"Kai!" She was equally excited to see him for some unknown reason that only made Laxus sigh and shake his head.

It wasn't that he hated Ravan and Kai.

It's that he hated his daughters being friends with them.

The youngest though wasn't  _too_ bad. And Marin did need friends her own age, so she wasn't constantly being bullied by the older children. Kai was probably the best thing in  
Marin's life, currently, and Laxus couldn't hate that.

Too much.

"Hi, Master," the young boy giggled as he looked up at the man. Laxus only grunted though which got a giggle out of the boy.

"I'm gettin' a new baby doll," Marin explained to her friend with her own giggle. Then a thought came to her and, with eyes that looked far too much like her Aunt Lisanna's, she asked her father, "Aren't I? Daddy?"

It's not like he'd drag them both to the toy store without buying them  _something_  after all.

"Of course, Mar," he sighed as he handed over the box to her. "Let me go see what your sister wants, huh? You stay with K- You know what? You two come with me."

They had no problem with this as, both examining the cute little baby's face then, they followed her father without a complaint. Laxus, never one to care much for children in the first place (other than his own), tried hard not to make too many faces at the children that filter around the shop. It wasn't easy.

Haven had found herself, of course, very busy arguing with Ravan over by the candy where he'd abandoned his own task of filling a baggie to the brim just to argue back. This usually would make Laxus bark at them some, but at the moment, he was so out of his element that all he wanted to do was get back to it as fast as possible.

"Is that your dad, Haven?" Ravan asked though, considering the man was his guild master, this was beyond obvious. "Ha! You can't even go anywhere by yoruself, can you?"

"Yes, I can! Yes, I can! He's just here because-"

"You can both do this back at the hall," Laxus grumbled to them. "Haven, go pick out a toy. One toy. Then we gotta leave, huh? Before your sister rips this doll out of its box. Marin, I haven't paid for it yet, so don't- Did I tell you two to stop arguing, Haven? Marin, stop-"

"Oh, wow, Master!" he heard then from somewhere else. Great, he'd misplaced Kai….who he wasn't even in charge of to begin with. Sigh. "Come look at this! Ravan, can you buy me this?"

So they all had to go then, across the shop to where Kai had gotten off to. He was standing by the big wall that was lined with different toys ranging from action figures to plastic swords. None of those were his interest though. Oh, no.

Rather, it was a colorful cube that hung on a low shelf, not even in a package. Just resting there with a price tag beside it.

"What is it?" Marin asked as Haven, after seeing, only went off in search of something for herself. Something mature. Sophisticated. Something that would make Ravan jealous because he could never buy because he didn't have a dad that was guild master.

Actually, he didn't have a dad at all.

Haven would have felt sad for him, had she not known how much having a dad truly sucked.

Except when you were being spoiled for no good reason.

Then it was pretty okay.

Still annoying though.

"It's a puzzle cube," Laxus informed the children who were still standing there. "And it's hardly a toy at all."

Ravan sneered then, at his younger brother, before saying, "Then I'm definitely not buying it. Not that I was to begin with."

"But Ravan," Kai complained at this. "That's not fair!"

"It's my money, loser, so it is fair." And, with that Ravna turned to walk off. "Brat."

So Kai only stood there, eyes filling with tears, blurring his sight of the precious cube thing that he'd only just learned about and had no idea what did, but needed then. Desperately.

Though he and his brother had grown up in a poverty stricken coastal town where their main source of fun was hunting or fishing, they'd long since learned the ways of city children. The desires of childhood. The longing of meaningless items. It was a right of passage, almost, to be a big baby as you were drug through the bazaar by a parent, kicking and screaming for this or that. But only because it led to the biggest right of passage of all; eventually not doing that.

Kai had yet to hit the second passage though.

It just wasn't fair. At all. Ravan only had jewels because he went on jobs with the older kids. He could go on jobs too! Honestly, he could. But he had to stay behind at the guild to help Marin. What? Was she going to sit around and sip juice alone? Huh? Is that what the universe wanted?

Or did it just not want him to have his toy?

It felt like the latter.

As she watched her friend tear up, Marin felt that sharp ping of empathy she possessed too much of, balanced by the lack of it in her older sister. And, turning to her father, she said, "Daddy, can we get the toy? I'll put my baby back."

And Laxus groaned because he hated kids, gosh did he hate kids, but he loved his little baby and how could he ever tell her no?

Plus the damn cube was only twenty jewel. A steal, really.

Ravan waited outside the shop for his brother, sucking on some hard candy, watching people pass by. He figured he'd leave with the Dreyar girls and, if not, he'd have to go in after him. But his assumption was proven right, as Ravna felt he typically was anyways, when his brother came bouncing out holding his prized cube in one hand and Marin's in the other. Laxus was busy trying to pull Marin's stupid baby doll out of it's box (they made it so complicated) while Haven only pranced right over to Ravan.

"Shake my hand," she demanded, holding it out, and it caught him off guard a bit as he was too busy focusing on the fact that, apparently, Master had bought his brother his toy. Without any thought, he stuck his hand out and shook hers, only realizing what had happened when he felt a sharp, pronounced shock travel up and down his body.

She'd tricked him! That freaking jerk!

"Ow!" he yelled as he jerked away from her and Haven howled with laughter. If it was that fun shocking stinking Ravan, she couldn't wait to do it with others.

As Haven ran off though, yelling at her father over her shoulder that she was racing him back to the guild (Laxus hardly heard over his own grumbling about the box) and Ravan vowed his revenge after her, he remembered that he had something else on his mind as well.

"Why did you bother Master about buying you that?" he grumbled to his brother as he ran over to gripe at him. "You brat. I was gonna share my candy."

"I didn't want candy," he told his brother though, honestly, later he would be whining for some. "I wanted this!"

And he held his cube, in all it's solved glory, above his head in victory.

"What do you even do with it though?" Ravan asked him with a frown.

"I don't… What?"

"What," he repeated as Marin, still holding faithfully to Kai's hand, looked over quizzically as well, "does it do?"

"Um… Master?" Kai raised his head and lowered his hand then as he addressed the man. "What do I do with this?"

"Huh?" Frowning down at the kids, Laxus said, "You solve it."

"How?"

"You match up all the colors in rows."

"But...but it already is."

"That's 'cause it ain't been mixed up yet," Laxus explained and, before he could do anything about it, Ravan snatched the previous cube away from it's rightful owner and took to doing just that. Kai's complaints, however, did nothing to put an end to it.

And, once the cube was completely and utterly disarrayed, Ravan handed it back to the little boy.

"There," he said with a vicious smile. "Solve it."

But Ravan knew he never would and it was such a low down, dirty, mean thing to do, honestly, to ruin someone else's perfectly pre-solved cube like that! Kai was too sad about it to cry.

So instead, with a look of determination he typically only possessed in regards to his flower bed, the younger boy remarked, "I will."

Back at the guildhall, with her doll finally freed, Marin took to dutifully caring for it as Kai spent a good ten minutes giving his all into rotating and twisting his puzzle cube in hopes of solving it.

These hopes, of course, were misplaced.

"I'll never figure it out!" he cried out in frustration as Marin, with a frown, held her baby doll closer. Seeing this, he only sighed and whispered, "Sorry."

"It's okay," the other child said with a bit of a grin, looking down at her plastic baby then. "You didn't wake her."

"I just wanna figure this out," he told her as, defeated, he set the cube down on the table. "I wanna prove Ravan wrong! But...but I'm no good at nothin'."

"That's not true," she insisted with a frown. "You're gonna be a good papa to the baby, right?"

"Y-"

"Uncle."

And they both tilted their heads back to stare up at Laxus who only looked down at them disapprovingly.

"He can be an uncle to the baby," the slayer insisted and, well, that sounded as good as anything to Kai.

Uncles seemed like a lot of fun. Marin's were, at least.

"But why, Daddy?" Marin asked with a frown. "If I'm the mama then the baby needs-"

"He's," Laxus grumbled with a frown, "the uncle."

Which meant that it was final.

As Laxus went off to take care of guild business (get drunk and bemoan his life), Kai decided to give his cube another go. He was very busy doing that when Mirajane descended upon them with a plate for each of them, with a sandwiches cut into triangles and chips.

"Mommy, look at my baby!" Marin held it proudly up at her mother who only smiled back, reaching down to pat her child on the head. "And Kai's got...a toy, I think."

"It's a great toy," the boy defended with a frown. To Mrs. Master though, he only said, "I'm just not too good at it yet, is all."

"Ooh, a puzzle cube, huh?" Mira beamed at the sight. "That's quite the challenge."

"Did you have one, Mommy?" Marin asked to which the woman shook her head.

"Your Uncle Elf did though, when we were kids, I think, maybe," she said with a shrug. "Maybe ask him?"

"I'm an uncle now too, you know," Kai informed the woman. "To this baby, here."

"Really?"

"He was gonna be the papa," Marin said with a shrug, "but then Daddy said he coudln't be and had to be the uncle. I dunno why-"

"Laxus!" And Mira was off then, to go chew out her husband a bit. "Were you bothering the kids? You let them play how they want to play."

"I'm not having this conversation here, Mira," he complained from his table where Freed dutifully sat at his side, going over different papers with him. "And they can play how they want. So long as it doesn't involve him being the father of her pretend baby."

"You're terrible, you know that?"

"I'm well aware."

But Marin and Kai were back in their own world then which, for the latter of the two, meant throwing his entire attention into the lunch he'd been presented with and giving little regard to anything else. They were in the middle of that when the guildhall doors open and loud commotion began to float around the hall. Nothing bad though. No way. Rather, it was the arrival of Team Natsu.

The most important member of that team, however, was Kai's main concern.

"Erza!" he yelled as she came over to the pair the second she saw them, sporting a wry grin as she approached. "You're back!"

"I said I would be, after all," she remarked as she stood before their table. "Should I presume that you bought and paid for this lunch that you are eating all on your own, Kai?"

"No," he giggled with a grin. "Mrs. Master gave it to me. But I didn't beg for it or nothing! She just wanted to, I think, because she likes me so much."

Erza's disapproving look wasn't enough to make Kai even think about ever paying for thing she could get for free though.

"Where's your brother then?" she asked. "Off on a job, I hope?"

"Haven shocked him with a secret trick hand buzzer thing and now they're fighting out behind the guildhall," Kai explained to which Marin nodded. Frowning, Erza turned then, off to go see about this.

And mainly scold them for not taking jobs nearly as frequently as she did as a child.

How did these children ever hope of purchasing a home if they never saved? She didn't wish to see Ravan and his younger brother out of her home, of course, but in the future, it was only natural that they would choose their own path. Find their own destiny.

How was she, then, to brag about their accomplishments when they didn't have the drive to accomplish them?

It was infuriating.

After Erza left though, Navi came over, having just returned from being on the job with her father and his friends. Before she had a chance to ask Marin where her older sister was, Kai asked a question of his own.

"Do you know how to solve one of these?" he asked, holding out his cube to the older girl. As she slide into the seat at the table across from the two of them, Navi only frowned.

Examining the cube closer, she asked, "Where'd you get it?"

"Toy shop," Kai explained.

"What are you supposed to do?" Navi sent on.

"Match up all the colors."

For a moment, the pink haired child considered all the different ways to accomplish this. She even picked up the cube and gave it a few twists and turns herself. Still, in the end, she only set it down with a shrug.

"Nope," she told the other two, "I dunno how to solve it either. Looks like a pretty boring toy too."

"Yeah," Kai sighed as, cradling her baby in one arm, Marin reached over with the other to pat at his back. "I know."

That night, back at home, Kai was very busy in his room, flipping throat comic books and getting ready for bed when Ravan came in. He was off to shower and was coming to get a change of clothes, but paused then, just to sneer over at where his brother laid on the bottom bunk.

"What are you doing, loser?" he asked as Kai only glared. "Still having solved it yet, have you?"

"I… I'm taking a break!"

"Whatever. You're never going to do it."

"Yes, I am!"

"Bet."

There was a glare going on then and Kai knew what would happen if he spoke his next words, but he did them anyways. Because in the terrible caste system that was brotherhood, you never didn't say them.

Even when you knew that they would be your demise.

"Bet."

And it was on then as Ravan, smiling in victory already, only remarked, "I bet you that before I get back from my next job, you won't have it finished."

"I bet I will."

"Bet you won't."

"And when I do?"

"You won't," Ravan insisted. "And when you don't, you have to… You have to be my arrow boy for an entire month!"

"No!" Kai griped. The title sounded cool enough. Arrow boy. Like a sidekick in a comic book. But it was actually terrible. It meant that, when Ravan was practicing his bow (which Erza insisted he do alongside his sword training), Kai had to go around and collect any arrows that missed their mark. If that wasn't bad enough, sometimes Ravan would purposely attempt to shoot at him while this was happening and it was all just so traumatic.

"Yes," Ravan insisted with a glare.

"Fine! But when I do it-"

"You won't."

"-you have to… You have to take me on a job!"

"Gross."

"One that I can do," the younger boy kept up. "And...and we split the profits."

"You can't do anything."

"I can do lots of stuff!"

"Fine," Ravan said with a shake of his head. "It's not like you're going to ever solve it anyways."

"Yes, I will," Kai insisted. Then, with the determination he usually reserved for eating, he added, "Just you wait."

 


	2. Chapter 2

Bright and early the next morning, the two little boys woke up, one rushing off to the guildhall to grab and job he could complete quickly and return to benefit from his brother's inadequacies while said brother only sat in the kitchen, toying with his puzzle cube, waiting on their caretaker to return from her training session. When she walked through the backdoor, drenched in sweat and in need of a shower, Erza jumped at the sight of Kai seated at the kitchen table.

"What are you doing up?" she asked with a bit of a frown. "Kai? Did your brother wake you as he left? He didn't ditch you again, did he?"

"No, Ravan's going out on a job."

"Good," she said as she headed over to the sink for a glass of water. "As he should. AS we all should. It is a gift to receive the blessing of magic. And to be such young boys and around so much talent. You could both be far more proficient than even I or the Master, should you actually put your minds to it. Far too often, talents of the young become detriments of the old and-"

"Hey, Erza, can you help me with something?"

"What is it?" she asked as she turned, glass in her hand, and came closer. "Kai?"

"Do you know how to solve this?" In the dim lighting of the pre-dawn, he held out his still all jumbled up cube to her. "Erza?"

With a frown, the woman investigated momentarily before saying, "Kai, I thought that it might be something to do with your magic. Do you not listen? That should be your main concern."

"You don't understand."

"When it comes to you? I rarely do."

"Ravan bet me that if I can't solve it, I'll have to be his bow boy and he always tries to hit me with them and I don't like it, Erza. I can't have that happen again, when he nicked me with one in the ear and I cried in front of Marin. I can't! I'm an uncle now. It's a lot of pressure."

For a long moment, the swordswoman only stared at the young boy. Then, with a slight shrug, she reached down to pick up the cube.

"Nothing is too hard for me, mind you," she said as she studied the cube for a few moments. "I'm quite proficent in most things."

"I know, Erza," he said in what might have been an exasperated tone had he been a bit older and known what that word meant. "Have you ever done one? When you were a kid?"

"When I was a kid," she said as she turned the cube a few different ways, studying the action, "I worked."

"I'm working too," he defended. "On this."

Erza sighed, softly, before saying, "It is a bet, then, yes? That's what you said?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well then, I do not wish for you to have someone else do it for you."

"What do you mean?"

"Cheating, Kai," she said as she handed the cube back to him, "is not winning. And while, if I toyed around with this for a bit, I might be able to figure out how to do it, that would not be you doing it. And that would be unfair to your brother."

"B-But Erza-"

"You must be honest and honorable, above all," she told him with a bow of her head. "Would you feel good about winning should someone else complete the cube for you?"

"I don't want you to complete the cube."

"But you want me to tell you how to do it, right?"

"Well...just to help."

"I am, at this time, unable to offer up any tips that would not lead directly to you solving this puzzle," she told him simply as she turned then back towards the sink, to get more water. "Perhaps someone at the guildhall who is more versed in it can be of assistance. But Kai, do remember, I would not be too happy to find out that you've cheated."

He wanted to pout, but that would get you nowhere with the woman. It was best to just mutter, "Yes, Erza," and sulk silently to yourself.

Which is what he did.

"Hey, Erza?" he called though as she headed out of the room, off to shower. Holding up, the woman glanced back at him with a frown. Instead of asking about the cube though, he only smiled sheepishly as he asked, "Can you walk me to the guildhall? I don't wanna get lost."

This got a shake of the head from the woman, but Kai knew it meant yes.

When they arrived, the place was a bit bustling, but Kai found the other children quite easily. As Erza wished him well on his bet, Kai went to go see if any of them could be of some assistance.

"Hi, Locke!" he greeted loudly when he found the older boy shooting marbles out behind the hall with Navi and Haven. "Hi, Navi! Hi-"

"Marin," Haven replied before he could finish, "is inside."

"I don't need to see Marin," he explained as he stopped before them. "I wanted to see you guys."

"You can't play," the blonde kept up. "You don't have any jewels or anything we want to play you for so-"

"I don't want to play," he assured her as he held out his puzzle cube. "I wanna know if Locke can help me with this. He's really smart, you know."

Which wasn't the right thing to say around Haven, apparently. She'd already lost a good chunk of jewels playing stupid marbles (which caused her to accuse Locke of cheating only to be rebuked and accused herself, which made her double down that she was  _not_  because she definitely was, but it wasn't going her way, so was it really cheating then? Was it?) and was not in the mood to be reminded that Locke was so  _smart_. Bleh.

She hated him.

Kai, that is.

And Locke, but that was a different kind of hate.

So as he fled, Kai did, front he lightening bolts that were sent his way, he decided that he'd ask Locke for help later.

Sometimes the older kids could be real mean.

That's what he told Marin inside where he found her sitting with her Aunt Lisanna and Uncle Elfman.

"She's a bully," Marin assured her friend because this was a new word that she'd learned, from her Aunt Ever, that fit Haven perfectly. "So don't feel too bad."

"I don't," he told her because he didn't. "I'm just mad that she made me run!"

"Running's good for men," Elfman insisted for him. "If you're gonna run from a battle, you might as well do it with as much heart as possible."

Lisanna made a face at her older brother before saying to Kai, "Let me see this special cube of yours, huh?"

Handing it over, Kai sat up real tall to watch his friend's aunt study the cube before, with a giggle, she passed it over to her brother.

"You were good at these, huh, Elfman?"

"Good at them?" he asked with a slight grin. "I was downright great at them!"

"Then could you give me some tips?" Kai asked, hopeful as he watched the overly muscular man toy with the little cube that looked almost comical in his massive hands. "Elfman? Uncle to uncle?"

"Uncle to uncle?' Lisanna questioned with a bemused smile.

"He's the uncle to my baby," Marin said, nodding. Having been cradling it the entire time, she held it out to her aunt then. "Daddy said he couldn't be the papa."

"Of course," Lisanna remarked.

"It's weird," Elfman grumbled, unconcerned with the current topic, but rather focused entirely on the child's toy in his hand, "but… I don't remember anything at all about these things."

"What?" Lisanna remarked as both Kai and Marin visibly deflated some. "Not you, Elf. Isn't memory, like, super manly?"

"Arg!" And Elfman threw the toy down. Fearful now of him breaking it, Kai reached over to snatch it back up. The man banged a fist into the table. "Why can I not remember?"

"Maybe because you're super old now?" Lisanna mused. "Knocked around one too many times? Or- Oh, Bickslow."

And she got up suddenly, Lisanna did, to go over to where the man had just entered the guildhall. Her demeanor visibly changed when he did and as she walked over, but only Marin seemed too interested in it as Elfman and Kai both were too into their puzzle cube issue.

"How could you forget, Elfman?" the young boy was complaining. "I thought you were a man!"

"I am!" the oaf insisted. "Of course I am. But...my memory recently-"

"I was counting on you. Uncle to uncle."

"I know, I know."

"Now what am I going to do? I can't go ask Locke again yet 'cause Haven's so mean-"

"Let me see it again," Elfman insisted. "And maybe-"

"No way!" Kai held it away from the man's grasping hands. "You might break it."

"I will not."

"You will so."

"He will so what?"

And it was Evergreen then, coming to fill Lisanna's spot. At the sound of her voice, Elfman became even more enraged at himself, as it was one thing ot embarrass yourself in front of a fellow uncle; in front of your girlfriend was a whole other.

"He's gonna break my toy," Kai informed the woman with a nod as Elfman only glared. "Mrs. Master told me that he could help me solve it, but he's not good at it at all! I think he's a liar."

"You don't call," Elfman griped to the boy, "a man a liar, Kai."

"Well, what do you call him then?" the boy challenged back because he had no fear, in any way, of the two people before him. At all. They were just Marin's aunt and uncle to him. Nothing more. "When he lies?"

Elfman's unleashing on the boy was squashed by Marin finally speaking up. But it wasn't about her friend's current problems. Rather, it ws about her aunt's.

"Why's Aunt Lisanna yelling at Bickslow?" she asked as it was becoming clear, from across the bar, that that was what was going on. "Are they fighting?"

Evergreen glanced over then (Kai and Elfman were too busy glaring at one another to care) and made a face before saying to her niece, "It's just adult stuff. Don't worry about it."

In most situations, she wouldn't. She spent a nice chunk of her childhood in the guildhall and the rest around her extended family. Arguments were frequent in the line of work they did. Being a mage was stressful both mentally and at times financially. In no way was it a foreign concept to her. Bickslow and Lisanna, however no exceptions, rarely did to the extent of others she saw.

Recently though, it felt like all they ever did.

She first noticed it when she spent the night over at their house two weeks ago and, since then, neither ever seemed to be on the same page. Whenever they were around one another, they were always ticked off, it seemed like, and though Marin was no stranger to marital rifts (her parents seemed to be stuck in a constant struggle of one), she didn't necessarily like them either. Especially when it had to do with her Aunt Lisanna.

Marin wanted to explain this to Evergreen, but wasn't quite sure how to and, already, the argument her other aunt and uncle were having was being broken up by her mother who, after noticing, went to tell Lisanna and Bickslow to knock off, no doubt. Laxus had had a rather bad attitude about things happening in the bar recently. Team spats, relationships falling and, though he clearly cared about Lisanna and Bickslow more than most, he'd been so sour recently he was very likely to make things worse, should he notice them arguing.

It was looking over at her father though, who had his headphones in and was very busy going over some paperwork, that gave Marin an idea.

"Kai," she said excitedly as she seemed to perk right back up from the thought that she was having. "Why don't we ask my daddy to help?"

"Why would Laxus know anything about this?" Elfman asked. "He's no man! I am. I-"

"Oh, yeah, he knew what this was at the toy shop, right?" Suddenly, Kai was happy as well. "Let's go ask him!"

And Evergreen or Elfman probably should have stopped the two of them, but by then she'd transitioned into teasing the man over his lack of puzzle prowess and, well, what could be done? Nothing much as the two headed over to the clearly working man to interrupt his life with their nonsense.

Laxus was all ready too, to snap at the person that tugged on the sleeve of his coat...before he looked down and saw it was the only person he would never snap at.

Err, at least, he always tried not to.

Marin was his little tiny baby who was always so timid and fearful. He hated when the realizations would dawn on him, some days, that it was probably partially his fault she was this way, what with his outbursts and temper. Pushing the thoughts away was the only way to feel good about himself.

Being a father was hard.

"Daddy," she said slowly as he only stared down at her, "can you help us?"

Tugging an earphone out, he asked, "With what, Marin? Daddy's very busy."

"Oh." Sadly, she kicked at the ground and he felt like an ass. "Well, Kai needs to learn how to solve his puzzle cube and Uncle Elf doesn't remember any more how to do it and-"

"Why do you think I would know?" He was grumbling and he didn't want to grumble, but it was just how it was coming out.

"You knew what it was," Kai grumbled right now because time was short and he did  _not_  wanna end up Ravan's bow boy. At all.

"I know what a lot of things are that I don't know how to work. And watch your turn. If I talked to my master this way when I was your age-"

"You talked to your master terribly," came the voice from beside him, "and you know it."

"Demon," he complained as she leaned over to refill his mug of ale. "I'm working."

"You're talking to the kids."

"I was working before that. And I'm finished now, anyways. I can't help you, Marin. Go ask the other kids. Maybe one of them-"

"Haven told us to go away," Marin told him with a shrug.

"They were playing marbles," Kai explained, "and said since we don't have any jewels that we can't-"

"Are they back there gambling again?"

"Dragon," Mirajane tried, but he was already shoving up.

"No, Mira, I told them to cut that out," he grumbled. "Don't need people coming to me talking about how my kid's swindling theirs out of money. They're kids! Got plenty of damn time to be addicts."

"You're not a very fun master."

"That's because I'm running a damn guild, not a damn orphanage. Fucking kids."

Marin and Kai knew better than to be seen with Laxus by the older kids after he broke up their game (then they'd call them tattletales and babies and they didn't like that much at all), so they hung back with Mirajane, who gave them juice before getting back to work. They were busy sipping at it when the older children came in.

They were all pouting, a bit, after getting told off by their master, so they gave it a few minutes, Kai and Marin did, before they headed over there to join them.

"What do you want?" Haven griped as, with her eyes folded across her chest, she glared.

"What we wanted before," Kai explained as Marin held her baby doll close. So far, Haven hadn't tried to harm her new toy, but she was fearful of the imminent attack. She'd lost a lot of other dolls the same way. "Can one of you help us with our cube?"

Kai wanted to add to that that he was specifying Locke, who was insanely smart in the little boy's eyes. OF course, Kai could hardly read, struggled with correct tenses, and was all around under educated for his age range so this wasn't a hard thing to be, but still.

Locke could read, write, and even enjoyed those two things.

That made him a genius, practically.

"No," Haven said simply because trying would give her the chance ot fail and she never took that chance, ever. She only did things that she knew for certain that she would succeed in and gave little thought to ones she might fail. "So go away."

Considering Navi had already given them an answer the day before, she just looked to Locke, awaiting his answer.

"Let me see it," he sighed, holding out a hand which Kai placed the cube in. "Where'd you get it?"

"Master bought it for me," the little boy said happily. "At the toy store. I'm part of the family now, you know."

"No," Haven told him simply. "You're not. So I don't know."

"Well, I am. I'm the baby's uncle."

"What baby?"

"The baby."

"If you're the uncle," Navi challenged with a bright grin, "what's it's name?"

Frowning, Kai looked to Marin before shrugging. "I call it the doll. Or the baby. Because I'm the uncle and I can do stuff like that."

"Yeah, well-"

"This is really cool," Locke interrupted them as he sat there, twisting and turning the little contraption between his fingers. Blowing his tangled black mop of hair out of his face, he stared down at the cube with intense red eyes. "I'mma go buy one!"

"Then you know how to fix it?" Kai asked, eyes alight. But, with a frown, Locke lifted his head and shook it at the other boy.

"No," he told him with a sigh. "I don't yet. But if you give me some time-"

"There is no time!" Kai insisted. "I have to get it all figured out before Ravan returns from his job."

The three older children thought about questioning him on this, but honeslty, none of them cared too much what the two boys did. Ravan found himself somewhat friendly with Navi at times, an enemy of Locke at most, and the mortal enemy of Haven for eternity, but as far as friends with, none of them were in any way. As for Kai, he was mostly seen as Haven's little sister's friend and nothing more. A nuisance, a lot, actually.

He was quite obnoxious.

"Well," Locke told him slowly as, reluctantly, he moved to hand the cube back. "I guess you could come over to my house. I have to go home soon and do some chores. I bet my mom will-"

"Alright, let's go!"

Excitedly, Kai sprang to his feet and, to his surprise, Locke watched the others do so as well.

"Oh," he remarked with a frown. "You're all coming over."

"I have to ask Daddy first," Marin told him slowly as Haven made a face and called her a baby, but she didn't care much.

There had been a terrible time, once, when she didn't ask before leaving and she had the most horrific experience of her life.

Marin never wanted to go through that again.

If asking her father's permission was all that had to happen to keep her safe, she was more than willing to do so.

Laxus tried to talk her out of going, because he knew that Marin was prone to getting upset when left alone with Haven and the others too long, but she was insistent on going with Kai to see his journey through and, well, what could Laxus do?

What could he ever do?

The most power he amassed, the less powerful he felt.

"Just be home for dinner," Laxus sighed. "And don't go anywhere else, okay? Not without permission, you know. And if Haven starts being mean-"

"Daddy, I have to go."

He felt silly for worrying, but Haven had only been getting worse, recently, towards her sister it felt. Though Marin was strong enough to stand up for herself, as she was the one with the lacrima, she seemed to forget this fact far too often.

Haven, however, never forgot.

It's why she had to demoralize Marin at every turn.

That and she was just sour about life in general, it seemed.

And spoiled, Laxus reminded himself as he watched his daughters leave.

That was the biggest one.

"Where are the kids going?"

"Mira," he grumbled as, this time, she came by with something for him to eat. "You know, I try to be present in this hall, not doing all my work holed up in my office, but when I do that, you just bother me the whole time."

"I bother you because I care."

"Yeah, well-"

"Can you do something for me?" she asked as she refilled his still mostly filled already glass. "Dragon?"

"If it involves getting up from this chair-"

"Can you talk to Bickslow? Again? He and Lisanna-"

"Mira," he told her with a long sigh. "It's their own business. I already told you that."

"But-"

"She knew how he was before she got with him, had a kid with him." Lifting his his mug to his lips, the man said simply, "After all, not everyone can be as happy as us, huh?"

Mirajane sighed a bit, watching as he shoved the plate of food to the side and went back to his papers, but slowly did nod her head inn agreement.

Not everyone.


	3. Chapter 3

"Locke, your lunch is on the tab- Oh. You've...brought all your friends."

Levy was at their kitchen table when the kids entered through the backdoor of the Redfox house, a bowl of something set before the seat beside her. She made a bit of a face at the other children, but Locke was quick to shake his head.

"They're not here to eat," he said though Kai had perked up a bit at the notion. "They're here for help."

"With what?" And she cocked her head to the side a bit, but smiled all the same at them. "Locke?"

He'd been toying with the cube on the walk over (he really wanted one of his own) and moved to hand it to his mother. At the sight of it, she smiled brighter.

"Ooh," she said as all the kids gathered around, watching. Even Haven seemed a bit interested in the whole thing. "Who's is this?"

"Mine," Kai told her as, though he was terribly concerned over whether or not she could help them, he still took a glance into Locke's lunch bowl. Stew. How lucky. "I have to figure out how to do it, all on my own, before Ravan comes back or else I lose a bet. And Erza says that I have to do it all by myself."

"Then how do you want me to help you?" she asked.

"Well...all by myself kind of sort of, I meant," he told her with a bright grin and, easily, Levy returned it.

Kai really liked Locke's mom. Kai really liked a lot of things about Locke. He liked his house, he liked his toys, he liked that he could read. The list went on. Mostly though, he really liked his-

"What are all these fucking brats doing here? Huh?"

Not his dad. Gross. Gajeel was a boar. And a bore. No, Kai liked-

"The boy can have friends, Gajeel. Just 'cause you don't have any-"

"Are you my cat or are you his, Lily?' the dragon slayer complained.

"I'm an equal opportunist," the Exceed said as he fluttered over to the table where he landed, much to the glee of the children. Gajeel and he were coming into the room for their lunch as well, no doubt. "Sounds like you're just too worried Locke will get too popular for even you."

"You know what, cat? I-"

"Dad," Locke griped a bit with a frown as Haven snickered at him. "Knock it off. They're just here for help."

"Help with what?" And then, to the complaint of his wife, he came to snatch the cube from her hands. "Ah, a puzzle cube, huh? Which one of you geeks are into these sorts of things?"

"Me!" Kai proclaimed proudly because he didn't know what a geek was.

"I want one too," Locke remarked softly because he knew exactly what a geek was.

"Gajeel, honestly," Levy told him with a frown. "Don't antagonize the kids."

"What are you talking about, shrimp? Antagonize? "

"It means-" Lily started, but it only got him barked at by the man.

"I know what it means, cat!" Then, huffing some, he took to twisting the cube around. "I meant that I wasn't doing that. I had one of these as a kid."

And the room was silent as even the kids who didn't know the man too well seemed a bit shocked by this statement.

"You did not," Levy remarked as Lily snickered.

"I did so," Gajeel griped. "I even know how to solve one."

"You do?" Kai asked, hopeful.

"Really?" Navi asked, doubtful.

"You brats. Why are you in my house?"

"Gajeel-"

Growling in response to his wife, he only remarked, "I wasn't like you little spoiled shits, with your parents and your toys and your basic needs being met."

"So," Lily sighed sarcastically, "spoiled."

"I had to find other things to occupy my time," he said as the children rolled their eyes and Haven considered just how much she could smart off to Gajeel. She gambled on none at all. "Between training with Metalicana and fighting for my own survival, what else was there to do? Can only make up so many stories in your head when you're bored. You gotta have something to do."

"So you went out and bought a puzzle cube?" Levy asked while Navi only muttered to Haven about how, by far, Locke's daughter was the most verbose. "Gajeel?"

"Ha. No." Shaking his head some, he said, "I stole it off some other geek, like this one here. What's your name? Raven?"

"I'm Kai," the little boy complained. "And my brother's name is Ravan."

"Tshe," came the sound from the slayer's mouth. Twisting and turning the cube with far more ease than those before, it only took a minute or so of silence before he presented Kai with a slightly altered challenge. "See here? I made a cross with the squares. You should be able to solve it from there."

"Wow!" Snatching it right up, Kai held the cube victoriously above his head as Marin cheered. Haven only made a face though.

"You know you still have to solve the whole thing, right?" she asked to which the boy only shrugged.

Life was a journey, after all. A few steps here, a few steps there, everything changes.

Kai, throughout it all, was always an optimist.

"Ha ha, Ravan," he snickered as he looked over his cube, as if guessing his next move. "I'm gonna win!"

"Now get gone, brats."

"Gajeel," Levy sighed. To the kids though, she did say, "Locke has to eat and then do his chores. He can't play now."

Assuming any of them wanted to play with Locke.

And that was a big assumption.

Haven made it clear enough as the children, now minus both the older boys, headed back out. Navi wasn't so sure if she agreed with this, but without Locke around to keep Haven at bay, found best to just nod her head in agreement.

"Are we going back to the guild?" Marin asked her older sister as they walked off from the house. "Daddy said-"

" _I'm_  not, no."

"Haven-"

"I'm going wherever I want."

"But Daddy said-"

"Laxus doesn't tell me what to do. He-"

"But he said-"

"I told you I don't care!"

Navi decided to hang back some, from Haven and her sister as they fought (they were literally headed towards the guildhall anyways) and instead fell in line with Kai who, paying no attention to where he was headed, hardly even noticed.

They were probably the least likely to interact in any way of the group. Navi had known Marin since they were babies and, considering Haven was kind of sort of her best friend, maybe, sorta, that meant she at least knew the other girl. Spent the night at her house. Hung around her. Kai though, she just found to be...well, odd.

Worse than Ravan, either, which was hard. Ravan was a jerk, but an understandable one. Kai seemed to be equally aloof as he was blissful towards that fact and it was rather off putting, overall. Marin found it to be cute and the others just ignored it, but Navi was rather in tune with others and the awkward vibe Kai gave off just about killed her.

Still, it was terrible having to listen to the two Dreyar girls argue and, to alleviate this, she asked Kai, "So do you think that you can do it?"

"Do what?"

"You know,"s he said with a shrug and a nod. "Get the cube done before Ravan comes back."

"I dunno," he admitted though it was with a grin. "But probably. I'm really, smart, you know."

"But you've already ruined the cross that Gajeel made for you," Navi pointed out. "And-"

"We'll just go back," Kai told her. "If I screw it up too much. And he'll help me-"

"Uh, no." And Haven was back into their business then, for some reason. Her argument with her sister hadn't ended in tears from Marin though, so honestly, it was already better than expected. "We won't."

"Why?' Kai complained. "If he'll help me-"

"Because I don't want to have to go back to Locke's house today, so I'm not."

"But Haven-"

"Don't say my name. Don't even talk to me," she told him with a glare. "I don't like you, Kai. I only went with you guys to Locke's because I had nothing else to do. By the time you're stupid self realizes you need to go back, I won't be available."

"Available," Marin repeated slowly as the word was rather large for her and cumbersome.

"I," she told them all loudly and proudly, "am going with Laxus to train."

"Well, Navi will walk me back to Locke's then," Kai decided as he finally glanced over at the pink haired little girl. She only frowned at him.

"Why do I gotta?" she asked. "Can't you walk yourself there?"

And even Marin seemed to give Navi a look for even asking.

"He'd get lost," the youngest Dreyar explained.

"We could be so lucky," the older griped.

"Besides," Navi went on, "I have to go home eventually too, you know."

No, Kai didn't know. He and Ravan didn't have this weird 'checking-in' system the other kids had and, overall, it seemed pretty tedious.

Navi didn't want to let on then, though, that she didn't really have one either. Her mother seemed to like to keep an eye on her, but Natsu more or less thought that when they weren't hanging out together (and he constantly wanted to hang out together), she should just be able to go do whatever. He kind of wished she didn't and was more like Happy, who he couldn't get rid of if he tried, but he had to let her spread her wings, as it were.

Or at least that's what Lucy said. That he couldn't constantly force her to hang out with him or else she might grow to resent it.

Rather than having to head home for any sort of parental reason, Navi just wanted to get out of what was turning into a pretty crummy situation. Best case scenario, Haven got to leave, happily, with her father, and Marin and Kai found something else fun for them to do. Worst? Haven somehow got in trouble before leaving, threw a huge fit, and Marin and Kai for some reason continued to hang around poor Navi.

Usually their lives fell somewhere in the middle.

And the latter of the worst case scenario was what Navi feared the most.

Haven, for all her bitching about having to walk Marin back to the guildhall when she wanted to go home and get ready for her adventure with Laxus, seemed to do it through her complaining. This probably had more to do with, if she didn't, said adventure would be off because Laxus would be mad at her.

She was self-centered, righteous, and absorbed, but wasn't stupid by any means.

They had barely crossed past the Fairy Tail gates when, loudly, Kai proclaimed, "We have to go back! I screwed it up too much. I-"

"I'm not taking you." Now having completed her sisterly duties, Haven rushed off inside the hall to confer with her father over just when they were leaving. "Losers."

Marin and Kai glared after the blonde before looking to Navi who, realizing this, threw up her hands.

Of all the things she didn't want to do, having to be around Gajeel again was pretty low on the list. They'd gotten out of there relatively unscathed that times, but the man's cutting words could only be kept at bay for so long.

He seemed to dislike her in particular, just for being Natsu's kid.

"Well, I'm not taking you back," she told them with a shake of her head as both Marin and Kai stared expectantly at her. "I-"

"Oh, here you all are."

Navi grinned brightly as Lisanna, who'd narrowly missed being run into by Haven (that might have gotten her in trouble with Laxus as well, so she was counting herself lucky on that one), came over to the group of children.

"Hi, Lisanna," the older child said as Marin and Kai, who'd already been around the woman that day, only glared after Haven.

"I was actually headed over to your house," she told Navi. "Your mom was babysitting today for me. Were you headed that way?"

Now she definitely was.

But, when she nodded, for some reason, Kai thought that Lisanna was speaking to him too.

"Okay!" he said with a bright grin. "I'll go with you. Levy's real smart, but your mom's high up there too, Navi. She'll help me."

That was hard to disagree with.

Still, Navi wished she had.

Marin tagged along after informing her mother and, off they set, to the Dragneel apartment. It was as homey as always, in a relaxed kind of way. Between three kids and Navi's frequently over friends, the tiny apartment was high on traffic usually, but there was just something about the nature and charisma of Natsu that gave a comfortable atmosphere to the whole place.

Of all the homes the kids bounced around in, even though it was the tiniest, it was their favorite.

"Navi! And Lisanna!"

Happy, who was very busy helping Ajax build block towers on the floor, bounced right up as they all came into the house. This knocked over the tower, but luckily, Ajax was more entralled than displeased.

"Navi's home?" And Natsu poked his head out of the kitchen, grinning from the sight. For a moment, anyways. Then he frowned. "What smells like Gajeel?"

"Hopefully no one," Lisanna giggled as she headed right over to her son, Ajax responding in kind.

"I went over to his house, with Locke, today," Navi said as she went right over to her father. "I-"

"Salamander!" Kai, not known for manners, strode right in with little concern while Marin just followed her aunt over to greet her cousin. "Can you help me with something? Or is Navi's mom here?"

"Both," the pink haired man said as, coming further into the room, he let Navi wrap her arms around him while he only stared over at Kai. "I've been known to take on a side job or two."

"You can't charge Navi's friends, Natsu," Happy tsked with a frown.

"Not at least without a discount," Lisanna clarified.

"We're not friends," Navi decided for them all.

It fixed things up nicely.

Not bothered by this, Kai only said, "I can trade you slightly used comic books or extremely used action figures."

"Keep your chump change," Natsu snorted. "I'm looking for some insider secrets to Erza. One that only a person who sleeps day in and day out over at her house."

"Well," Kai thought as he tapped a finger to his lip, "did you know that-"

"Kai," Marin complained as she frowned over at him. "You can't give up what you got before he helps you!"

"Something tells me," Lisanna hummed while lifting her son up, "that it's unlikely he can."

"Aw, come on, Lisanna," Natsu complained with a frown over towards her. "Have some faith."

"It's help with a puzzle, Dad," Navi said as, continuing to hug him, she titled her head up to look at the man. "A puzzle cube."

"Well… Lucy is home," the man conceded to the giggles of all other than Kai. "Luce! Are you busy? Got you a job."

"A job?" came the call back. "Is that what you yelled?"

"That's what I said. And Lisanna's here, too."

It was only a minute or so before Lucy came down the single hallway, one of her babies in her arms, whining a bit. Lisanna, not one to like bothering others, spoke quickly.

"I just came by to pick up Ajax, was all," she told the other woman. "Thank you. I-"

"Oh, you can't stay?" Lucy asked with the look of disappointment. "I've been trapped here all week. Don't you wanna sit and-"

"Don't say trapped, Luce," Natsu complained from the kitchen where he and Navi had gotten off to.

"We're not holding you captive," Happy agreed as, when Lucy went to sit on the couch, he fluttered over to perch on the back of it and stare down at the sleeping baby in her arms. "We just, you know, can't function without you."

"I feel the love," she retorted as, letting Ajax loose once more, Lisanna came to join her on the couch with a grin.

"Mrs. Salamander," Kai addressed the woman then as he came closer. "I'm the one that wants your help."

"Hmmm?" She smiled at him, though somewhat tiredly, as the boy came to stand before them, his cube outstretched. "What's this?"

"It's my puzzle cube," the little boy explained. "I have to figure out how to solve it, all by myself, without anyone doing it for me, before my brother Ravan gets back home from his job."

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"To help," he said. "Without doing it for me. Don't you summon spirits? I bet one of them is good at 'em. You got a lot, huh?"

"I do," Lucy agreed, but still shook her head. "But I doubt they'll be helpful with this."

"But-"

"I'll help you though, don't worry."

So as he took a seat on the couch as well, Marin went after Navi to see what she was up to. Natsu was actually the one up to something as, with so many guests, he thought it was a perfect time to try his hand at cooking.

"Sandwiches," Happy remarked as he too joined them, "aren't cooking."

"I'm helping out," the slayer defended. "Lucy likes that."

She did.

But even she would agree it wasn't cooking.

Natsu let the girls help him out with the crafting of all the sandwiches, which he took seriously while they only giggled. Navi's father was such a shock to the other girls when they were around him as all their fathers were rather reserved and cold, in most ways. Though Gajeel could show his love with taps to the top of Locke's head and Laxus tried his hardest to give his girls what he never had, the open love that Natsu had for his daughter was noticeable to her friends.

They all ate together, the adults in the kids, littered around the living room. Lucy even went and got the other baby to join them. They were getting so big! Though Navi found herself frequently annoyed by their presence, in that moment, she did enjoy showing off her twin brothers to Kai and Marin.

Considering she was speaking to the younger pair of the other two siblings up at the guildhall, it would be lost on them to try and explain how hard it had been, getting both Iggy and Jude (though he was frequently called Lucky) introduced into her life. They did understand though how annoying they could be when, before the meal was even over, one of the babies began to sob and, of course, set off his brother. This was worsened by the fact that Ajax, for some reason, saw their tears as a reason to start his own.

Between Lucy and Lisanna, however, things were calmed with relative ease. Iggy needed to be changed, Lucky was sleepy, and Ajax was just being a brat. They were in the nursery though, sorting all of that out, when they finally got around to talking.

At first, it was over other things going on. Lucy wanted to hear all about the guild and what was happening up there. So Lisanna filled her in on what she could, but other than the past day, she'd been away for a bit as well. It was a hard jump from them talking about that and into what had been going on in Lisanna's personal life recently.

"It's that way sometimes, you know," Lucy sighed as she cradled Iggy in her arms, the baby not to be silenced so easily it seemed as he cooed back up at her. "Natsu and I were in a pretty bad place, right after the twins were born. You just get stressed and-"

"It's more than that though," Lisanna sighed as she stared down at Lucky in his crib. Ajax toying on the floor with a stuffed bear and didn't seem to mind for the moment that his mother was giving another child attention. That could change at any moment though. "Bickslow and I are always, you know, so in sync. But he's been off recently. Mentally. He's not usually so...uptight. And then we're fighting anyways, about jewels."

"I know that fight," Lucy agreed because it was becoming impossible, it felt at times, for Natsu to balance time at home and the constant influx of jobs it was going to take to support them. Lucy had started back taking them too, when she had someone to watch the twins, but it was hard to get someone to watch two babies and equally as hard to find two people to each watch one of them and then there was Navi who wasn't as hard to find someone to look after her or even to have join them on a job, but…

Things were much harder than Lucy had ever thought her life would get.

Sometimes, it felt rather bleak, even.

All the same, she wouldn't change it for a second.

And she knew her husband felt the same way.

"I know," Lisanna giggled slightly, grinning over at the other woman. "No one said being a mage was easy."

"No one smart, anyways."

"Are you guys doing okay? Right now?" Lisanna asked and it was so broad, could apply to anything, but honestly, Lucy had no better answer than just to nod.

"Yea. You know, recently, we really have."

"That's great." And Lisanna shared another grin with her. "You know that if you need anything-"

"Same," Lucy was quick to return. "And all that stuff that's been going on between you and Bickslow… It'll all work out. I know it will."

With a nod, the other woman agreed, "I'm sure."

But from out in the hallway where Marin had been headed towards the bathroom, but stopped at the recognition of what the women were speak on, things didn't sound good.

At all.

When they fell silent in there though, she hurried on towards the bathroom, as not to be noticed (eavesdropping was an offense punishable by a finger wag from Mirajane). Still, the entire thing bothered her even as her aunt walked her and Kai back to the guildhall.

"Navi's mom was great," Kai informed the two white haired ladies as they went along, Marin holding her aunt's hand tightly, but silently. "She showed me how to make that cross thing that Mr. Gajeel mentioned before and showed me how after that I have to...well, she wrote it all down and you can read it to me, Marin, and-"

"Aunt Lissy," Marin interrupted as the woman grinned down at her. In one arm she held Ajax, of course, but the other was holding just as tightly to her niece's as her niece was holding to hers. "Can I spend the night tonight? With you and Uncle Bickslow?"

"Of course, sweetheart," Lisanna said with a grin. "But why?"

"Daddy and Haven are gonna go training and Mommy's gonna stay up at the guild and I don't wanna stay up there forever with her," she told her which, for Marin, was actually a pretty good lie. It was easy too.

Gosh, she was going to have so many things on her conscious.

Pretty soon, she'd be as bad as Haven!

Err, well, Kai, maybe, or Locke. Navi was a good median.

"You know you can stay over whenever you want," Lisanna assured her. "We'll go to the hall and tell Mirajane, then I'll take you to your house to get some-"

"I can stay too, right?" Kai, who had been busy messing with his cube, looked up then. "Please?"

That got another giggle out of the woman. "Well, I guess we'll have to ask Erza about that one, huh, Kai?"

"She'll say yes," he told the woman with confidence. "With Ravan gone, she'd love to get rid of me."

"That's not true," Lisanna insisted. "And you know that."

Until, at the hall, when he asked Erza, she literally said, "Good. With Ravan gone, I was looking for a way to get rid of you."

"That's not too nice, Erza," he griped though she only shook her head at him a bit.

"I have not had a night alone in my house for over three months. That is what is not too nice, Kai."

"Well, what are you going to do all alone?"

"I've been wanting to reorganize my weapons displays for months," she informed him. "And I just got a new novel that I…that I want to read. Without interruption."

"You sure are boring."

"Kai-"

"Wont' you miss me at all."

"Not particularly."

Frowning, the boy only replied, "Oh."

"But by the second day," Erza assured him as she reached over to pat him on the head, "I certainly would. So be sure to come back, huh?"

He nodded with a grin before asking, "Can you water my plants for me though, Erza? Today? I got so busy with my cube, I forgot."

"That," she said with her own nod, "I definitely can do."

 


	4. Chapter 4

Over at her aunt's house, Kai and Marin set to work on getting the living room of the small apartment ready for their night spent in it. That involved pillows and blankets and stuffed animals as well as shoving the table and couch out of the way to make even more room. Usually they would make a fort as well, but Kai was too busy to work out the logistics, he claimed, because he had to get to work on the cube.

"Ravan could arrive at any minute," he explained to Lisanna over their dinner of rice and weenies. "I have to finish it as soon as possible!"

"Is being a...bow boy," Lisanna said with a bit of a frown at the last part, "really that bad?"

"You have no idea," he insisted. "It's terrible. I'd rather listen to Erza go on and on about the importance of magic or reading and writing or even herself. Anything, but that."

Marin giggled into her palm as they sat around the tiny kitchen table. "Erza does talk a lot."

"More than me," Kai added.

"I," Lisanna sighed as she mostly made sure Ajax ate more food than he played with, "wouldn't go that far."

Ajax went to bed not soon after dinner and Lisanna informed the two of them that, like always, they could stay up as late as they wanted, but to not be too loud, okay? So that they didn't wake the toddler.

This really only meant they'd stay up for about an hour or so longer though as both Kai and Marin were strong believers in the power of sleep. So by eight, they were both snuggled down into their respective sides of the huge pallet they'd made, Kai with a flashlight as he flipped through the notes Lucy had left him after, once more, he'd ruined the progress he was making on his cube.

Then, with a sheepish grin, he tumbled over the pillows, stuffed animals, and blankets to land beside his best friend and hand the sheet of paper over to her to read aloud to him. It was only once he was snuggly in his spot once more than she began to read it to him though, going over how to set his cube properly before the white cross portion.

Marin fell asleep not soon after that though, leaving Kai to try and figure things out on his own. He felt it in his stomach. This unshakable sensation of just being right and victorious and it was going to happen. He was going to solve the cube. And Ravan was going to lose. Bow boy? No way. Not Kai. Never Kai again! Then he was going to go on his first job with Ravan and he was going to bring home lots of jewels and treat Marin, Erza, and Mrs. Master to dinner for being so great to him while he was still a boy. 'cause after his job he was going to be a man.

He was sure Elfman would agree.

This puzzle cube was his gateway to manhood and he could feel in his chest that it was getting solved that night!

Err, his stomach.

Err, it wasn't feeling so great after all.

Uh, actually, the feeling had nothing to do with the cube. He just had to go to the bathroom.

It was only after he was done in there though and heading back to the living room that he heard a noise from the front door. For some reason this triggered Kai's flight or fight response and, as it was turning out, he was flight all the way. Rushing then, he dove into his part of the pallet and pulled the blankets tight up around his head, holding his breath.

There wasn't anything to be afraid of though. It was only Bickslow, keying into the house hardly even late at all, really. Still, Kai stayed hidden, feigning sleep. It wasn't like he was afraid of Bickslow or anything though.

"Damn it!"

Or maybe only a little.

The seith hadn't been expecting the layout to be so altered in the living room and stumbled over the new position of the coffee table. When he realized what had happened, he only grumbled as his babies that floated around snickered and flickered their green light in the darkness.

This was enough to summon Lisanna, apparently, from the bedroom where she came out of just to tell him that he was being too loud which got her griped back at and wow, Kai sure was glad he was staying super quiet.

If Ravan and Haven's fights had taught him anything (admittedly, not much), it was that being an innocent bystander was never a good thing.

Oddly enough, neither was taking sides…

"You're telling me to be quiet and to not wake them up when you telling me that is gonna be what wakes them up," Bickslow complained to his wife as, with more care then, he stepped through the maze of bedding strewn across his living room floor. "Why are they here anyways?"

"Why are they ever here? And I could have told you that they were if I could ever find you-"

"I was out training."

"You were not."

"What do you mean? Huh? I wasn't? How do you know?"

"You were out drinking again."

"Prove it."

"Honestly?"

"Yeah."

"You fucking reek, Bickslow. Plus, Ever told me that you and Elf-"

"I was with your brother then, so see? What's the big deal?"

"I'm not saying it is a big deal," she defended. "I just said you were, then you lied and said you were training-"

"That was not the order of events."

"Either way, you lied. So what difference does it make?"

He was beat.

So he quit playing.

"Lissy, I can't do this right now. I'm going to bed."

"Not smelling like that you're not."

"Whatever." And he had to step over the kids again as he headed over to where they'd shoved the couch. Plopping down on it still in his full getup, all his dolls slowly fell to his chest. "I'll go to couch then."

And she made a face at him in the darkness, which he returned in the soft green glow of his dolls, before she went off, away from him, back to the bedroom. Alone.

Kai wasn't sure what all else went on though, as he hid beneath the covers, 'cause he kind of sorta conked out after a minute or so and it was probably for the best, honestly. Not only did he not care to hear the argument, he also was pretty likely to giggle at some point and reveal himself.

He just couldn't help it.

Mr. Bickslow was super funny to him.

And pretty creepy at times too. When he awoke in the middle of the night to the man snoring on the couch, with his mask off, the moonlight allowed Kai to see the man's face tattoo and the fact his tongue was dangling out of his mouth also let him see his guild marking and, fine, Kai was no looker, but dang the man looked downright bizarre.

The next morning when Marin shook Kai awake, it was to find that the couch was no longer occupied and the house was abuzz. There was music playing and the sound of Ajax's laughter as well as the sound of Bickslow's wooden babies nonsensically singing along. They weren't alone in this though as, frequently, Bickslow would loudly belt out a stanza or two and it was the way it always was again, the night before forgotten.

Kai did notice one thing though.

"Where'd Lisanna go?" he asked as, in the kitchen, he found Bickslow making everyone breakfast.

"Eh?" Snickering at the question, the seith simply said, "Away from here. For a bit. And then she'll be back. For a bit. Then away again. Yeah? Like us all."

This made Marin frown some, but Kai nodded because it was true. You went away and came back. Then you go away again. Ebb and flow.

Like waves.

And he really liked waves.

After breakfast, Bickslow showered and got Ajax ready while Marin and Kai cleaned up the mess they'd made of the living room. Err, well, Marin took to trying her hardest (folding blankets was harder than it looked) while Kai sat around and toyed with his cube some more, but she knew that if the roles were reversed and there was a chance she was gonna have to play arrow boy for Ravan, he'd do anything he could to stop that from happening to her.

"What you got there, kid?"

"What you got?" five voices repeated. "What you got?"

Kai glanced up at Bickslow as he came over before saying simply, "A puzzle cube. But I can't be bothered by you right now! I have to focus."

"Focus, huh?"

"Yeah," he repeated as his eyes went back to his cube. "Focus."

He felt the man's heavy gaze for a long few moments before, with a bit of a sigh, Bickslow turned away from him and that was that.

Kai went with Marin back home to her house, following along the silly acting Bickslow who was entertaining his equally as silly son. Marin just followed along, not seeming too giddy or too focused on anything, honestly.

The walk, at least, was quick.

"Marin," Haven greeted, sort of, when they came into the living room to find her having just arrived back from her training with Laxus it seemed. "Kai. ...Bickslow. You guys should see the new spell I learned."

"I really don't want to," Kai told her as Marin, just from the thought, fled to the kitchen. It was in there that she found her father glancing over the paper at the table and her mother making him his late breakfast. Surprisingly though, Lisanna was there as well, at the table.

"Daddy!" Marin rushed right over, practically forcing the man to let her sit in his lap. As he frowned at this, she only said, "Haven said she'd hurt me."

"Haven," came the complaint of both Strauss sisters in union then to which the oldest Dreyar daughter retorted.

"I did not!"

"Did too," Marin sniffled as Laxus patted her gently on the back.

Bickslow came into the room then, Ajax in his arms. Mirajane, at the sight, immediately abandoned getting Laxus' food ready and rushed to take him.

"My pancake needs to be flipped, demon," Laxus complained when it was clear she was too enthralled with her nephew to care. "Mira. Mirajane-"

"Oi, Lissy, here you are," the woman's husband said as he stood before where she sat at the table. He could feel Laxus glaring at him, just for existing, but then, Laxus never was one for so many guests all at once. "I got the kids all ready, today, by myself. Made 'em breakfast, made them clean up after themselves."

"Uh-huh," the woman said slowly as she watched him with a frown.

"My," Laxus intervened once more, "pancake, Mirajane."

"Oh, you're just so cute, Ajax," the demon deemed as she snuggled his wiggly nephew to her closer. "I love you so much. You just wanna come live with your aunt, don't you? Huh? And-"

"Mira."

"Ajax. I love you so much."

"My pan-"

"Well," Bickslow continued on to his wife as Laxus, finally frustrated with his own, set Marin down so he could get up and finish his own damn breakfast. Damn. "Lissy. I kinda feel like, you know, you went off to Mira's to...do whatever it was that you wanted to do. Vent? Whatever. So I went ahead and did all the morning stuff with the kids and now-"

"Bickslow, don't."

Somehow, while Laxus wasn't able to get Mirajane's attention, Bickslow's words, not even directed towards hers, had been.

"Don't what?" he asked as he glanced over at her. Their kitchen was a nice size and they were all a bit spread out from one another, but the entire tone of the room had shifted quite easily in a way only Mira could accomplish with just her voice.

"Don't," she said as, after flipping his pancake, Laxus turned to go grab his wife, who was moving across the room to glare into Bickslow's eyes, "come over here and do this."

"Mira-" Lisanna tried, but it was a bit useless.

It had all been a long time coming.

In the past few months, Lisanna had been bitching to her sister about Bickslow who would bitch to Laxus who would then mostly do nothing with the information because he didn't care about it. Bickslow and Lisanna had always been a bit off, honestly. When they were still dating, it went along to the effects of them either being on a huge high or some variant of a low.

Then they had a baby.

Which meant, at least to some extent, that they were tied together and they might as well go ahead and get married because why not?

No one was really too sure why not, but why also alluded most everyone.

Laxus had been married a lot longer than them. Or at least it felt that way. And he knew all about ups and downs. He knew about arguments and sleeping on the couch. He knew about taking long jobs to avoid one another.

But Laxus also knew when to accept his fate.

He was married to Mirajane who, to some, could come off as a ditz and easily gullible person. She was far from this with Laxus, however. He saw her for what she was.

What Bickslow was about to encounter.

Because Lisanna came off as more well put together and mature in normal light, but deep down, she was far easily to manipulate than Mira ever was. Bickslow played her in a lot of ways. It wasn't like he was cheating on her or anything (Laxus finally would intervene, probably, then), but he had a habit of, well, making bad habits and then, when Lisanna called him out on them, he usually made her feel like shit over calling him out to begin with. Imagine trying to come after someone like him, someone that sacrificed so much to being with to take care of her and Ajax.

Just because she was feeling like he wasn't around much or blowing money that they didn't have didn't necessarily mean that either of those were true.

And look on the bright side.

He forgave her.

It was just the way that their relationship worked. Only recently, Lisanna seemed to be becoming more and more frustrated with it. Which is where the complaining came in. Mirajane, who usually reveled in these sorts of things, seemed to be feeding off her sister more this time around though. Laxus wasn't sure why this was, that she was getting so upset with Bickslow, but he was kind of just glad his wife wasn't mad at him.

He and Mira had found a relative peace recently and if part of that meant Bickslow becoming the enemy, so be it.

However, Laxus really didn't want the showdown to happen right that moment in his kitchen.

Which is why he grabbed Mira's arm before she got to Bickslow.

"No," the she-devil said, not fighting her husband (she still had Ajax in her arms), but glaring over at Bickslow all the same. "He's been being a jerk since-"

"Mira, the kids are here," Laxus reminded as he glanced over at where Marin was still standing, by his chair at the table, and then to the doorway, where Haven and Kai both were watching too. Well, Haven was watching, silent for once, but Kai was still just standing there, toying with his puzzle cube.

When he was in the zone, nothing would drag him out of it.

"I don't care," Mira insisted as Bickslow made a face back at her. "He's been a real jerk to Lisanna for, like, a year-"

"Not a year," Laxus grumbled.

"Yeah, not a year," Lisanna agreed.

"I'm never a jerk, so there," Bickslow decided.

Mira wasn't having it with any of them though.

"You are a jerk. You're always a jerk. And you stick Lisanna with Ajax constantly, even when you say you're not going to, and then disappear off on jobs or go drinking-"

"I was with Elfman," he insisted. "If anything, you should thank me for hanging out with him."

If anything.

"And I don't have to answer to you, Mirajane," the seith went on. "This is between me and Lisanna."

"You're not going to sit there and trick her into forgiving you in front of me," Mira retorted. "Not this time. And then what do you do? Every single time? You don't even care, do you?"

"Mira-"

"No, Lisanna. He's always this way and-"

"Maybe you're the one twisting up Lisanna's mind," Bickslow accused then. "Mira. I don't hear her telling me these things. Then she comes over here with you and, well, maybe you're causing us problems. On purpose even."

"Why would I ever-"

"Because you're stuck in your own shitty situation with the boss here and-"

"Come again?" Laxus grumbled as he shot the other man a look. "Bickslow?"

"W-Well… What does Lissy have to say? Lissy?" He looked ot his wife then and, stuck in a rather hard place, she only looked to the table.

Then, softly, Lisanna said, "You aren't around much, anymore, Bickslow. If you don't want to be home, just say that. Don't-"

"Hey, I do wanna be home."

"You clearly don't."

"Yes, I do. I just-"

"Then why don't you ever prove it?" she asked, finding her own voice then, a bit. "I'm not asking you to not go out on jobs. I go on them too. And I work up at the hall. But when I'm not doing one of those things, I'm here. I'm with Ajax. I'm not like you, spending, at most, an hour or two at home, taking care of him, and then disappearing for the day. Even Elfman and Freed spend more time with your own son than you do. If that's what you want then..."

Lisanna didn't finish, but she'd said more than enough. Somehow, for once, it seemed like Bickslow heard it too as he only glared at her before at Mirajane. Then, he was turning to head out of the house, babies following.

"Wait!" Kai, suddenly, seemed to key back in on all that was going on. Rushing into the kitchen, he gave Marin a quick hug before following after Bickslow out the backdoor.

He was his ticket back to the guildhall.

Because...Kai honestly had no idea how to get back on his own.

"Are you going to the guildhall?" he called to the man as he ran him down in the street, rushing to the seith's side. His babies had an eerie feeling about them then as they floated around, clearly picking up on the vibe that their father was giving off. "Mr. Bickslow?"

"Eh?" He frowned down at his side, seeing the kid there. "Yeah, I guess I am."

"I'll go back with you," he told the older man with a bright grin which the older didn't in any form, return. It was when Kai's eyes dropped though, down to the cube in his hands, that he realized looking away had been his downfall and, he couldn't quite remember what exactly he was doing. What step was he on? Where were his notes? Who was going to read him his notes?

Growling, Kai threw the cube to the ground. This was enough to shock Bickslow into stopping, staring back at the little boy who was coming to realize he was never going to figure that damned cube out and he was going to end up as Ravan's bow boy, wasn't he?

Wasn't he?

The thought made hot tears well up in his eyes and he hadn't slept too well the previous night and he never really fell too good when Ravan was gone anyways, but now he couldn't want his brother back because hwne his brother got back, he was only going to shoot arrows at him and Erza would let him because she thought that it would help with his personal growth and Kai didn't want to grow anymore.

Or be a man.

He didn't want to go on jobs or try at anything ever again because his failure with the cube was teaching him that, when you tried, you only hurt.

And Kai didn't like hurting.

"Hey," the seith complained, walking back over to the little boy then. "A toy ain't nothing to cry over, is it?"

"I can't figure it out. And I've tried a thousand times! Probably more. I dunno. I can't count that high."

"Well, that's a good reason not to be sure."

Nodding, Kai sniffled a bit as he said, "I don't wanna be Ravan's bow boy. I just didn't like him saying I couldn't do something. But I can't do it. So now I'mma have to be. What am I going to do?"

Considering that Bickslow had no idea what he'd just conveyed to him, there was little for the man to do other than reach down and pick up the cube in his hands. Staring down at it for a moment, he righted himself before speaking.

"When I was a little kid, I didn't have a lot of toys, yeah? I was kinda like you, before you got here. Did you know that?" When Kai shook his head, Bickslow shrugged a bit. "Wasn't no fisherman or whatever. We were part of a circus troupe. It was hard work, a hard life on the road, but some of the best memories I have. One day, you'll feel the same way about all that hard work you put into fishing. Or with your brother now, when he's tryin' to hit you with arrows and shit. I never got an older brother, so I don't know about it, but one day, you'll wanna get back to this. Bet."

But Kai was done taking bets. And that was one, honestly, he wanted no part of.

"There's a lot of terrible things in this life, you know, kid," Bickslow went on. "You've seen some of them already, but you stay around this guild much longer, you'll only see more. You can't fold up and cry every time the going gets tough. It's the real shitty stuff that makes you wanna cry that, in the end, you really needed to, you know, make it to the end. Nothing wrong with crying, but you gotta pick your moments. And this wasn't a good one."

"I just… I just thought that I could do this, but I can't." Kicking hard at the ground then, Kai said, "Ravan's going to make fun of me and Haven too, probably. And now I won't get to go out on a job."

"How come?"

"I bet Ravan that if I did it, he'd have to take me out on one."

"What are ya waiting for him for?"

Sniffling some, he said, "I'm no good at my magic yet, to go on one alone."

For a moment, Bickslow stared into Kai's eyes before looking at the cube once more. Tinkering with it then, he said simply, "It's not so hard, you know. You just gotta play with it awhile. Know what you're doing. You get a lot of that time, traveling in the back of wagons to a town that don't wanna run ya outta it or sitting around while the big guys set up the tent."

"You know how to solve it?"

That got a shrug before, still twisting and turning the cube, the man went on.

"It's a trick, you know?" he asked. "The cube? The whole thing is one big trick. Plays with your mind. 'cause you, you know, go into it thinking that you gotta just solve one side and that will magically solve all the others. But it ain't like that, is it? You get that one side all set and then, once you get ready to do the others, you realize that to fix the whole thing, you'll have to mess the side that you just put together all up again. And you don't want that, do you? Maybe. You're not sure. But it seems like a waste then. So how are you supposed to do this thing, anyways?"

Kai shrugged because even though Lucy had gone over the whole thing with him in full detail and even gone to the lengths of writing it out for him, he honestly had no idea.

"You're not solving for a solid color or side," the seith explained. "You're doing it like you do everything else. In pieces. Every little tiny square has a certain spot to be, you know, in the end, but has to stop off in a bunch of other places along the way. So you gotta do it layer by layer, yeah? Piece by piece. And then, eventually, when you least expect it, you'll see the goal line and it can finally all be complete."

When he handed the finished cube back to Kai, the little boy only frowned deeper, but stayed silent. It was only when the seith, with a long sigh, turned to walk back towards the Dreyar house that the boy spoke up.

"Bickslow," he complained. "I thought that you were going to take me back to the guildhall?"

"Later, kid," he said while waving him off. He had something else he had to do. "Later."

Though Bickslow went back inside, Kai found that Marin and Haven had been kicked out of it and were in the front yard when he arrived back. Haven was very busy meditating, she claimed, in the other half of the yard and would cut them in half, literally, if they bothered her.

So Marin was more than a bit happy when he came back.

She gasped too as he came to join her on the front porch steps.

"You solved it?" she asked in disbelief.

He couldda said yes.

Marin would back him up, to Erza, if he tricked her into thinking this and it wasn't like Bickslow would give enough of a crap to ruin it. Then he wouldn't have to be the bow boy and would get to go out on a job with his big brother.

But…

"What are you doing?" Marin asked then with a frown as he started to mix up the cube again, to start over fresh.

"Your uncle solved it," he told her simply.

"Bickslow?"

Nodding, he said, "So I still gotta do it. All on my own. I'll figure it out. Eventually."

Marin wasn't so sure, but still nodded some at the other child.

"Yeah," she agreed, eyes falling over to where her sister was very serious about her meditation, some of her electricity even jumping off her body in some ways. She looked like she was charging up, but maybe she was just testing her stamina? Marin hoped for the latter. "Eventually."


	5. Chapter 5

The sun was crawling closer to the center of the sky as Kai and Marin found themselves lying on their backs next to their garden, him toying with his puzzle cube while she read a children's book. Everything felt peaceful and calm, in those moments, before Ravan arrived. 'cause when he did, Kai knew it would all turn bad. Ravan would shove it in his face, that he'd done so well at his job and there was poor Kai, not even able to complete a stupid puzzle. Then he'd be subjected to the terrible word of having an arrow shot at him and that would make him cry and it just…

Rolling onto his stomach in the grass, Kai continued to diligently work at solving the damn thing while Marin sat by, reading to him the directs Lucy had given him when asked. He felt like he was memorizing them though and understood the cube a lot more than he had previously, but his confidence over being able to eventually solve the thing was kind of shot.

"Still working away, I see," was what Erza remarked when she came out into the backyard to lord over them. "On everything, but your magics. Marin, do you wish to be a true slayer or not? And Kai...oh, Kai."

"Hey," the little boy grumbled with a frown at the woman. "I have lofty goals too."

"Lofty?" the elder mage repeated, partially in shock that he even knew such a word. "Or lazy?"

"I'm ambitious, Erza," he insisted to the woman. "How could you say that?"

"You are learning quite the array of words, apparently, I will give you that."

"I'm an uncle now," he reminded her. "That's a lot to deal with. It's matured me."

"Hmmm." The swordswoman only continued to stare down at him. "Has it?"

Pushing up some, he nodded his head at her. "I think about other things now, than just food and myself."

"What do you think about?"

"This cube. Being Ravan's arrow boy. How come the baby doll's eyes are painted on instead of those cool googly ones that I like much better."

"Riveting," the woman told him simply, "thoughts."

She'd stumped him finally, with her words, but he could tell from the tone that it wasn't anything nice. Glaring at her, he retorted, "I've got a lot of other thoughts too. I'm a real deep person, Erza. Like, do you ever think about how come some people eat a lot and get fat, but other people eat a lot and get really muscular, like Elfman? No. I do."

"I don't," Erza replied, "because I know why. There's regimen and working out that go into all of that as well the type of food one is consuming. Not to mention-"

"I also think about other things!" Kai wasn't giving up so easily. "I think about...um… I think about life."

"Life?" Marin giggled back. "What do you mean?"

"In general," he specified without being specific at all."

Erza, that time, didn't question him. Only folded her arms over her chest and chuckled softly. Then, shaking her head, she continued on past them and went over to her weapons shed. She summoned her key from her reequip space before unlocking the heavy metal locks.

As they softly tumbled to the ground, Erza became reequipping other things.

She was swapping out her weapons.

On any other day, Kai would have happily rushed over and offered his service in polishing for them, as he had way back when (a year ago, at most), when he didn't know her too well and the action was an order from the woman. It felt like so long ago to him though that he didn't live with Erza and they weren't the best of friends.

Some nights though, when he thought really hard, he could remember life before… Before. But it got harder and harder with each passing day. He could still recall his mother and father's faces, but his other relatives and members of his tiny village grew tougher. It was hard for him to even think of names, some days. Or the path he and his father would take down to the best fishing spot.

Even the terrible event that he thought would forever be seared into his memory, when that hideous monster came out from the water and destroy his home, his family, his life, was slowly beginning to fade. And, though it still hurt his heart to think about, Kai struggled to honestly understand his true emotions in it all. He loved his mother and father. Their village. Their simple life.

Honest, he did.

Or he had.

Now, being so young and being inundated into a new lifestyle, it was hard for him to say with confidence that he wouldn't choose it over the other. Had he stayed on that coast and never ventured with Ravan to Magnolia, he'd have never truly met Erza. Or Master. Or Ms. Master. Or Marin. Or anyone. Fairy Tail woudln't mean anything to him.

But as it was, it meant everything to him.

How oculd he ever consider it not being that way?

Ravan got really mad at him sometimes, when he'd ask for him to tell him a story about their past. About how they lived. Before. Ravan didn't like to think about those things.

But Kai did.

Or at least he wanted to.

He wanted to remember that he was happy back then too. That there were happy times when he was with his family. His real family. He never wanted to forget that there had been something before Fairy Tail. Before he met Marin. Before Erza started taking care of him.

For as slow and immature as he could be at times, Kai wasn't dumb. He knew that if it was already so hard for him to recall things, that as time went on, it would become impossible. And that made him sad.

And he didn't like being sad.

It was as he watched Erza disappear into the overly filled shed that he thought of all this. Again. And he wanted to go over there and help her. Honest, he did. But…

He had to finish his cube, after all.

No, those few, easy jewels that he would make off that could wait. He had to-

"Ravan!"

He had to be shot in the butt with a bow by his vindictive older brother who would then make fun of him for the misfortune.

Yep.

The sound of Marin announcing his brother's return made Kai fall back down to the ground in defeat.

It was over.

There was a chance, of course, that Ravan would come back unsuccessful and therefore would void the contract, but no. The air he had about him just gave off an enormous victorious vibe. And, as he came to sneer over at his brother, Kai knew for sure that his goose was cooked.

"Looks like I'm back," the older boy said while pointing to the cube that the younger held in his palms, "and you're still not finished."

Kai had to bite back any complaints he had, literally grinding his teeth to stop the excuses from coming out. Instead, he only sat there and nodded as his brother. Because he was right. He hadn't finished and that was the deal.

"I," Ravan continued, "am gonna go ask Erza for the biggest bow she has with the sharpest arrows. Then we can get to practicing, huh?"

Kai was shaking.

No, literally.

Seeing this, Marin frowned a bit and asked the oldest boy, "Don't you wanna rest? You just got back home. Did you wanna go play at the guild?"

"I don't  _play_  at the guild, Marin," he griped at her. "I'm a serious mage with serious responsibilities. Playing is for babies. Like you. Who can't even solve a puzzle made for babies."

Still, before he walked away, Ravan dropped his sack of stuff on his back to the ground and, digging around it some, produced a large bag of candy, like the one he'd purchased the same day Kai got his cube.

"Share," was all he ordered the two kids who, now in better spirits, took to doing just that.

But Kai didn't have to be an arrow boy just yet, it seemed, as at his return, Erza wanted a complete rundown of his job and how he went about completing this.

It was at the bar that this took place, however, where Erza bought herself a stiff drink and Ravan purchased his own lunch with his own money because he was a man. Kai and Marin ate what Mirajane gave them because they were still kids.

And honestly, as he munched into his grilled cheese, Kai didn't think that was all that bad.

"Hi, Locke," Marin greeted with a giggle when the older boy came in with his father and Pantherlily. He'd made a beeline right over for them.

"Hi," he greeted them all with a nod. Erza was the only one to return it as Ravan only glared at him and Kai was too busy eating to focus on much else. "Have you seen Haven? I wanted to know if she wanted to go with me to the toy store to get a cube-"

"You can have mine," Kai offered as he finally came up for air. "I don't want it anymore."

Erza, taken aback a bit by this, asked, "Why? You seemed so enamored with it before."

"Well, I can't solve it!" he complained. "I gave it everything and I didn't solve it. Locke wants one and-"

"So?" Ravan, from his spot next to Erza, frowned at his younger brother. "You're just gonna give up? I thought you didn't want to be a baby."

"I'm not a baby!"

"Then don't act like one."

"I'm not!"

"Are too. Quitter."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"I used to want a brother," Locke remarked as he glanced between them slowly. "I'm glad I never got one."

"Locke!" And Haven had found him, it seemed, as she came to shove his shoulder. "You're late."

"Late?" he gripped, rubbing at where she'd no doubt left a bruise. "What are you talking about?"

"I learned a new magic spell from Laxus last night that's super powerful and I want to test it out on somebody."

Widening his eyes, the older boy said simply, "Why do you think I want to be the one?"

"Locke-"

"I'll do it." Ravan was still eating, but dropped his fork then at the sound of a challenge. "Haven."

Which, of course, made Locke glare at the boy before remarking, "She asked me."

"And you said no."

"Why do you guys wanna get shocked so badly?" Marin asked with a frown.

It was weird, honestly, the way they all intertwined together. All friendships at the stage of life are, in some ways, but the closeness in which theirs were frequently brought made it even odder. In any close group of friends, there always has to be a leader of sorts. With such pigheaded people like Haven and Ravan around, most would assume that it would be the two of them that butted against one another frequently.

And it was. It definitely was.

But at the same time, Haven more or less was just the defector leader. Her father was the guild master, she was one of the oldest and, most importantly, by far, she was the one with the least will to give up. She would kick and scream and punch and bite until she was unconscious if it meant getting her way.

Her strong will, when put up against the other children, was usually enough to at the very least outlast them. While Locke only got bigger and Ravan only got stronger, neither would ever have as much drive as Haven did.

So, that left Locke and Ravan to fight for second in command.

Of sorts, at least.

Because Ravan would never admit that he wanted anything to do with the slayer kids. And Locke would never admit Haven was kind of sort of his leader. However, they could both feel that though Haven was Ravan's mortal enemy and definitely Locke's best friend who he hated, the two of them just had a natural rivalry to them.

Fighting over letting Haven potentially paralyze them went into that.

"It doesn't matter," Haven decided. "I probably can do the attack twice now, I'm so powerful."

Still, Locke and Ravan glared at one another. It was during this though that Kai asked, "I thought you wanted to go to the toy shop? Locke? Or will you take my puzzle cube?"

That, at least, got the dark haired boy to look away from the other. Instead, he stared at the other's brother, shaking his head.

"I wouldn't take your toy, Kai," he told him with a bit of a grin. "Besides, Master bought you that. Remember? That makes it special."

Staring at where it sat on the table, Kai only shrugged his shoulders. "Mr. Bickslow said that I gotta learn to do it piece by piece. That may take awhile."

"But you've already gotten so much better!" Marin insisted. "You get it started all on your own, even, without the instructions Lucy gave us. And the more you go on, the better you'll understand it. You can't just give up, Kai. It's not manly!"

He wasn't sure, Kai wasn't, when he told Marin of his desire to become that. A man. But he was sure it had been divulged during their deep integral conversations where they discussed things like what made some people fat and some people muscular. Why the sky was blue. What's the difference between paste and glue? Lost in all that deep, stimulating conversation, was no doubt a tip off.

Or maybe...maybe Marin just knew.

He did like Elfman a whole lot.

They were both uncles, after all.

"You'll get better at it, loser," Ravan told him simply as he stood to accompany Locke and Haven. "Just keep practicing."

It was only after the older kids were gone though that Erza, who'd silently been sipping at her drink, spoke.

"When I was a girl," she began to which both Marin and Kai, too young to roll their eyes, only sighed softly, fearing a lecture, "I was quite scared of it too, Kai."

"Puzzle cubes?" he asked softly.

"Failure," she corrected. "Of course, the stakes were quite raised for me, in comparison to you-"

"His arrows hurt when they hit me, Erza."

"-but the first part of overcoming that fear is accepting the defeat when you taste it. And you have already done that part," the woman said with a nod of her head. "Have you not?"

"Well," he said slowly as Marin only giggled, "I didn't gripe too much when he told me I lost. And I will go collect his bows for him, when he practices his archery."

"The second part, however," she went on, "involves something much harder."

"Harder than getting hit with arrows?"

Nodding a bit, she said, "You must keep your head up. And continue to improve. Do you think that when I first arrived at this guildhall, I was capable of handling the toughest of jobs?"

"I dunno," Marin remarked slowly. "I always kinda thought you did."

"I did not," Erza assured them. "I worked at it. And I failed, at times. But when I failed, I hardly gave any time to licking my wounds. I got another job, I practice the move that failed me, I leveled up my magic. Whatever it took to get back out there, I did it. Ravan bet you, fine, and you lost, but that does not mean that you give up on what you originally set out to do. You must continue on, Kai. Eventually, you will be able to do a puzzle cube in your sleep. And what then?"

"Then...then I go on a job?"

"No." Reaching over, she patted him softly on the head with care that she only seemed to have for him. "You take the lessons that you learned from it and you continue to grow and mature as a person. You widen your magical abilities and find a side to you that doesn't constantly have to smart off and loaf about. Then, and only then, will you take a job."

Kai frowned some, down at the table, and thought on this for a long moment before raising his head and staring the scarlet warrior right in the eyes as he questioned, "Erza?"

"Yes?"

"You knew that I bet Ravan that I would go on a job, if I won and finished the cube."

"You told me that, yes."

"But… You don't want me to go on jobs yet. And you didn't tell me that if I won, I wouldn't be able to. Did you lie to me?"

"No," the woman said with a bit of a shrug as she raised her mug to her lips. Around it, she told him simply, "I knew you would never finish the cube."

His eyes falling then, Marin felt her own spirit crush at the woman's words as the boy only whispered, "Oh."

"But I was pleasantly surprised by your determination," she complimented him. Sort of. "Even in the face of inadequacy, you persevered. That is not something that you do often."

"I just wanted to prove Ravan wrong."

"Good." Nodding her head, she said, "Whatever drives you, use it. If we're lucky, maybe one day Ravan will dare you to actually learn some more spells."

Doubtful.

But maybe.

As it turned out, Haven's new spell was not as master as she thought and wound up with all three kids rather ill the next few days. She'd been far more powerful than she planned and nearly killed Locke, as he was the first to be shocked, and injured herself and Ravan in the process as the electricity flowed through the area behind the bar they attempted this, striking both the young reequip mage and the girl herself.

Laxus had a long talk with Haven about control and what it meant to have power over others.

Gajeel talked to Locke about not being such a weenie and, hey, maybe even finding a new best friend because the Dreyar girl clear had it out for him.

Erza didn't talk to Ravan about the incident at all though she did hold off on a job to stay around the house as he laid up on the couch, feeling singed from inside out.

Mira had to work though, up at the hall everyday as Lisanna was going out on a job and they were just too busy for Kinana to work alone. Laxus had to go out of town, to attend a guild master meeting. This usually meant that either Evergreen and Elfman would watch the girls, but that couldn't be the case as they were off too. During the evening, their mother could be with them, but during the day, with Haven so laid up…

She wanted to go to Locke's house and he wanted her to come there too, so they could heal (bicker) together, but Gajeel and Levy seemed a bit peeved about the whole thing, Laxus felt, and he didn't want a whole ordeal (being a master and all, he was always worried that eventually he'd be forced to actually discipline Haven for her misdeeds, worst of all when she wasn't even doing anything wrong, just being too powerful for her own good), so he was going to send her over to Navi's place, but Mirajane insisted he not do that as Lucy already had enough to deal with.

"Oi, boss, I can watch the kid," Bickslow told the man and his missus the morning Lisanna was leaving. "I already have Ajax here to watch, right? So I'll just come over here with him and sit with Haven. Like she was a baby again. Won't you like that, Haven?"

"No," she insisted from the other room, where she was stretched out on the couch, bandaged from head to toe. "I don't. Laxus, no, please."

From the kitchen, Laxus grunted a bit down at his coffee before saying, "You able to handle that, Bickslow? Your kid and Haven? Especially when she's so whiny-"

"I am not. And no, he can't. Mom, tell Bickslow no.":

"I can watch her!" Bickslow even saluted Mirajane and Laxus, getting the former to giggle. "Take care of it all, I will. I'll keep her entertained too. Movie lacrimas rot the minds of the young. I'll keep her entertained with the same things I was entertained by as a kid. The mystics of card tricks! The illusions of juggling! How to do a back flip. How to not do a back flip. Are you really a tragic clown trapped in the body of an equally as tragic acrobat? Find out!"

"Laxus, I won't ever do anything bad again," Haven continued to plead. "Don't make me listen to that."

"I, for one," the slayer said with the brightest smile he'd had in awhile, "am sold."

"Laxus!"

But when her parents were gone and it was just Bickslow and her (Ajax was too busy playing with his toys to care about either of them), Haven didn't gripe too much.

Mostly because he didn't do all that he told Laxus he would.

Instead, he pulled up a chair by the couch and sat down, tossing around a rubber ball he'd found in their toys, throwing it up high enough to just graze the ceiling before falling back down into his waiting palm.

"Why'd you wanna stay with me so badly?' Haven asked with a bit of a frown. Honestly, she was banking on being sent over to Freed's where he'd make her read books and give her lectures on her recklessness. "Is it because you wanna impress stupid Laxus?"

"What, kid?" he asked her with his own frown. "I can't love you? I'm your uncle, aren't I?"

"Not like Elf. And don't be gross."

"Love ain't gross," he insisted with a sigh. "Love is special."

Still, Haven stared at him. "You just wanna impress Aunt Lisanna and Mom, don't you?"

"Perceptive little shit, huh?" Bickslow snickered a bit. "It's why I love you."

"Stop saying that."

"Your aunt needed to go out on a job," the man said then with a more straight face. "Can't keep forcing her to stay home with Ajax here. A man should raise his son and all."

"Now you sound like Elf."

"He isn't the only one that can worry about that sorta stuff," Bickslow insisted. Then, looking off, he added, "Besides, I'm not trying to just impress them. Your aunt and mother. I'm just trying to be a better person. What's wrong with that?"

To Haven? Everything. To admit you wanted to be better at something meant that you'd failed at something.

And she'd never admit something like that.

"It's a piece by piece thing," he insisted to her as, that time, when the ball came down, he held it in his hand, clutching it tightly. "Piece by piece."

Across town, Marin was having a much better time than her sister as, rather than worry for her own flesh and blood's well-being, she worried over the sibling she had in hushed whispers only. Ravan.

He was much better at being a big brother than Haven was a big sister.

In true big brother fashion, even, he made her sit by the couch, reading a comic book to him. This annoyed Erza who, by this point, though the boy was playing up his injury a little too much, but did take the pressure off Kai to entertain the girl for a few days.

Because yes, he did think of that as his job. It was an important part of their friendship, after all.

During all this though, as Kai sat near by, tinkering with his cube, it happened. After days of trial and error and assistance from others, he'd done it.

He'd solved the puzzle cube.

It was with a lot of pride that he came to set it on Ravan's chest who, a bit put out considering he was very invested in the comic he was having read to him, frowned at first. This changed though, after a moment.

"Well, look at the big baby," he congratulated in his own way as Marin, noting then its completion, dropped the comic to go hug her best friend. "Finally finished it, did you? It'd be a shame if someone messed it up again!"

"No!" And Kai had to be quick to grab it before his brother did. "Ravan!"

"What's the point then?" the older boy asked. "It's how the toy works, ain't it? You mix it all up and start all over again, don't you?"

"Not me," the younger said as he took steps back, away from his brother and friend. "I'm gonna go glue it together. So ti can never be messed up again?"

Joke lost in his tone then, Ravan told him simply, "Don't do that. You big diork."

"You're a big dork!"

"You're the biggest one if you go and do something like that."

"Fine," Kai huffed as, looking down at his cube again, he said, "But I'm not messing it up again. Not yet."

"Don't then," Ravan huffed as the moment passed and he wasn't so congratulatory towards the younger boy then. "You big baby."

"I'm not a baby."

"I like it, Kai," Marin told him with a big grin. "I think you did great."

"Thank you," he grinned right back. Then, glancing down at it, he said, "It looks so nice. This way. I'mma go show Erza!"

"Me too!"

"Hey," Ravan complained as they ran off for the kitchen to find the woman. "You were reading to me. Marin!"

That's what he got though, he figured as his body cried out at him when he tried to reach to grab the comic where Marin had discarded it on the ground. Trusting another Dreyar girl. What was he thinking?

Locke wasn't thinking about much of anything as he laid in his room, having taken a far worse brunt of the magic than Kai or Haven had. He wasn't sure what was worse, the way his head banged or everything smelt like smoldering coals, but mostly he just knew it plain stunk.

It was the shittier end of the stick, for sure, being an only child. And only family, it felt like, at times, as even though Marin and Haven didn't get along too well, she had all those aunts and uncles to play with. And Navi's brothers were too small to really do much, but she had her dad who was more like a big brother than he was a, well, dad.

Locke loved his mother and father and Lily, but sometimes you just needed someone else.

Which is what he got when, after some convincing, Haven was allowed by his mother passed the front door and there she was, in his room.

But she didn't apologize.

He'd have feared he was hurt far worse than he was if she had.

"Here," she said simply as she held out something to him.

Locke smiled, maybe, a bit, as he asked, "Oh. Kai solved his puzzle cube?"

"No, loser," she remarked as, no longer holding it out, she took the solved cube and begin to mix it all up. It was only once it was thoroughly mangled that she moved to actually place it in his hands then. "I bought it. For you."

He grinned widely at that and Haven wanted to punch him, but she couldn't because he was so hurt and it probably would actually get them grounded for one another even longer. The short few days they had been had been terrible for them both and were more than enough.

He wanted to thank her and ask her how she was feeling and, maybe, even about Ravan (bleh, maybe not), but she was sinking to the floor then, to sit with her back up against his bed and he only began to toy with his cube as she started to tell him all about her horrible punishment of having to be babysat by her Uncle Bickslow and, honestly?

He'd take that moment over a stupid apology any day.

 


End file.
